Referral sharing gives each confirmed entrant a unique link and awards extra entries when a new person enters through it. It is a Pro bonus action: you can configure and preview it on Free, but entrants on a new Free-plan contest do not receive referral tools or rewards until you upgrade.
Configure referrals
- Open the contest editor.
- Go to Build > Bonus actions.
- Click Add bonus action and choose Referral Share.
- Add a clear title and description.
- Enter the Share message used by supported device share sheets.
- Set Entries per referral from 1 to 10.
- Set Maximum referral entries from 1 to 100.
- Save and test the complete storefront flow in Preview.
On Free, the editor labels Referral Share as Pro and keeps it paused on the live storefront. Launch warns before activation. Upgrading to Pro makes it live immediately without relaunching the contest. A contest that already had bonus actions when plan gating was introduced is grandfathered and keeps them live.
Referral Share always remains optional. It cannot be made a required action because an entrant must complete the base entry before receiving a referral link.
What entrants see
After the base entry is confirmed, the success experience shows:
- A unique referral URL containing the entrant's referral code.
- Copy and, when the browser supports native sharing, Share.
- Successful referral count.
- Referral bonus progress, such as 4 of 20 bonus entries earned.
Copying or sharing the link does not award entries. The original entrant earns the configured reward only after a new entrant submits a valid entry through the unique link. Self-referrals are ignored, and rewards stop at the configured maximum.
Referral rewards increase the original entrant's total entries. A weighted random draw uses that total, so an entrant with more earned entries has proportionally more chances.
Review referral performance
Open Results and select Referrals. The summary shows Successful referrals and Active referrers.
- Referred entries shows each referred entrant, who referred them, total entries, source, and entry date.
- Top referrers ranks entrants by successful referrals and shows referral bonus entries, total entries, and latest referral date.
Use search and pagination to review larger contests. The Referrals segment count is the number of successful referrals.
Troubleshooting
If a reward is missing, confirm that:
- The contest is on Pro, or is a grandfathered contest whose actions remain live.
- Referral Share is configured and saved.
- The friend opened the unique referral URL, not the ordinary contest URL.
- The friend completed a valid entry as a new entrant.
- The original entrant has not reached Maximum referral entries.
- The contest was active when the friend entered.
Keep the reward simple and explain it in the contest description and terms. For a broader Results tour, see Managing Entries.
See Bonus Entry Actions for the full Free and Pro action rules.